World Tour Leg 4 - Granada to Gibraltar

Well. I'm lucky to be able to write this summary. After the landing it took me a while to calm down...

Clear skies in Granada. 10:00 and nobody willing to fly to Gibraltar. So I refueled to the top, checked the basic status of the Baron and decided to fly alone.

Easy take-off, calm winds, nice views. I flew VFR towards Alhama de Granada, point S. I started to climb until reaching 8500 ft. I prefer to fly lower, specially on coast, but I didn't want to cross Málaga CTR, which top limit is 7500 ft.

The landscape at the south of Granada is quite nice. Low mountains surrounded by fields with perfectly aligned olive trees. And few miles later, the Mediterranean sea. I flew over Vélez, already at 8500 ft., then turned to west, towards Málaga.

Following the coast to the south I passed Torremolinos and Fuengirola, two famous villages for summer holidays. 

 The following waypoint was Marbella, another important city in the southern coast, at which I started the descent, directly into de sea, to reach point Y of Gibraltar airport (LXGB), aiming to land in runway 09.

As I approached Gibraltar I could see a bank of clouds, at about 6500 ft. But VFR was perfectly possible. Winds calm and no traffic. Everything ready for the landing.

I reached point Y and turned right, heading 090. Two white, two red. Cars stopped near the runway and a traffic waiting on the gate. I added one point of flaps and everything looked fine.

Until I lowered the landing gear. Only two green lights! Left wheel is stuck! I tried several times to rise and lower the gear, but it didn't work...

I considered to abort the landing, but my glide angle and speed was great. I never expected the problem to be solved in the air. Hence, squawk 7777, full flaps and maximum concentration.

Once over the runway I reduced the power to the minimum, cut the mixture off to stop the engine and glided as smoothly as I could over the asphalt. I should have cut the power and fuel flow, but I didn't think about it.

Finally, the belly touched the ground and the strong friction allowed the Baron to reduce the speed from about 80 kt to 0 in few feet. At the right moment, I would say...

After the recovery of the aircraft and a visit of some LXGB staff, I could check the damage and, well, pay for it. Luckily the engines were not broken (with the exception of the props). The GPS simply burnt out, due to cutting off the mixture with the avionics still on. So I fixed the wheel, the GPS and made a revision on the structure.

Since next leg will send me directly to Africa northern coast, I took advantage to upgrade the injectors and the exhausts, hoping to prevent engine failures over the desert. If on the previous leg I refreshed how to fly on IFR, the lesson on this one is to check the emergency procedures before and during flight.

The maintenance will take a whole day, let's try to rest... and find some jobs.

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Technical details:

LEGR - LXGB

S AXARQUIA RINCON-VICTORIA FUENGIROLA MARBELLA Y

Av. distance: 110 nm
Av. GS: 170 kt
Av. alt.: 8500 ft.

METAR:

LEGR 132300Z AUTO 00000KT 9999 FEW055 11/10 Q1011

LXGB 132350Z AUTO 30002KT 9999 // BKN046/// 15/13 Q1011

Emergency landing due to left wheel stuck.